A FORMER Victorian police officer who worked with the National Crime Authority has pleaded guilty to stealing 1kg of drugs.

James Anthony McCabe, 39, was due to face trial in the Sydney District Court on drug and armed robbery charges relating to a fake drug bust in 2002.

McCabe, who was then a Victorian policeman seconded to the National Crime Authority, allegedly faked the arrest of a drug dealer in Sydney's west, stole 1kg of methamphetamines from him and arranged to sell the drug.

The former police officer pleaded guilty today to one count of robbery, with his lawyer Louise McManus indicating the other matters would be considered as aggravating factors when he was sentenced.

McCabe was one of two officers accused over the phony arrest, in which McCabe was alleged to have held a pistol to the drug dealer's head.

He was committed to stand trial in his absence after refusing to return home to Australia from Cambodia, where he fled after a Police Integrity Commission (PIC) investigation of the matter in 2004.

He was informally extradited to Australia last year and yesterday his attempt to have the trial permanently delayed was refused.

In applying for a permanent stay, Ms McManus asked Judge Michael Finnane to rule that due process had not been followed by Australian and Cambodian authorities and that McCabe should subsequently not face trial.

She also claimed a large number of witnesses had been contaminated by widespread media coverage of the PIC hearing and other legal hearings about McCabe and his co-accused, Samuel Foster.

Foster is serving a jail sentence after also pleading guilty over the drug bust.

He was a NSW police officer who was working as McCabe's partner in the National Crime Authority, now known as the Australian Crime Commission.

Foster had been expected to give evidence against his former colleague.

Judge Finnane adjourned the hearing until later today, to allow preparation of agreed facts.

Source: Herald Sun  03.06.2008